Chapter 18
So here is the new chapter. Your reviews are awesome. If anyone is on Tumblr, please follow me, I'm Tripp3235. I've seen a couple of people promoting my FF there, I so thank you! Speaking of thanks, another big thanks to Slynn6776 who decided to talk to me about my mythical creatures and now I've come up with a better plan than my earlier one on where to take this. She's awesome. She's not into OUAT, but if you ever get a chance to read her FF, please do so.
"Sade!" she shouted in horror.
The young man barely resembled himself, his coloring was a mixture of yellow and almost purple. His face was contorting and his eyes…those eyes, even Regina could hardly look at them. They were completely white, devoid of any coloring. This alone told her what was happening to him.
She knelt down besides the bed, her hands were shaking, they couldn't let this metamorphosis. It had to be stopped. She started to extend her hands but someone's reached out and grabbed hers.
It was Friar Tuck. "What dark magic are you doing? And how do you know Sade?"
Her eyes roamed around the room. There were too many people in the hut as it is, but they were glaring at her, including Robin. "I-I'm going to try to help Sade. That's why I'm here!"
Someone in the back said, "She's the reason he's turning into this. She's upset Robin forgot her so she's getting her revenge!"
"I think it was part of her plan all along!" came another. Regina remembered him when she ate dinner alongside Sade. The young blond man. He pulled out a knife. "I think it's time we take-"
Sade trembled, coughing up phlegm, everyone was startled and leaned back, including Regina. Sade faced her now, for a brief moment, his eyes flickered. She saw his pupils and her heart leaped. She didn't want him to succumb to this fate. She started to say his name but just as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared returning to the blinding white orbs.
She reached out and took his arm. His other arm crossed his chest and took her hand. He began squeezing it. She smiled at him and said, "Sade, it's me, Lucille, do you rem-" She cried then. The pressure of his squeezing becoming too much. She realized now he wasn't reaching out to her. He was trying to hurt her. Ripping her hand free, she turned to the friar, "You need to bind his hands."
"You were Lucille!" came the friar's response. Everyone else was talking, it was easier to focus on Regina's stunning confession than watching their dear friend succumb to his dark evil. Regina's eyes went to Robin's. His expression was what she expected, a mixture of anger and pain. His agony of missing his son briefly substituted by the agony of watching one of his merry men transform into a creature of darkness. The anger, she was sure, was directed at her.
"Please help me try to help him," she whispered. He wouldn't have been able to hear the words over the buzzing in the hut. But he understood.
He took a step forward and turned around. "I want everyone out of here! Let her do what she needs to do."
The men were shocked to say the least. "You're going to entrust Sade's life with this witch?" One of the men said, "For God's sake, Robin, she probably did this to him."
Robin briefly glanced back towards Regina, she could see his face. She knew he worried what they said was the truth. "I think Sade is out of our hands. Maybe she can help him-"
"If she was in our camp earlier, she probably gave Sade some potion that did this to him!"
Now Regina was insulted at that. "Oh please! And it took this long to kick in? Do you really think I have nothing better to do but steal souls from farm boys living among bandits?"
"I WILL HANDLE THIS!" Robin shouted at her. Turning back to his men, he extended his arms, pushing the men out. "Now, everyone get out. The only people I want in here to help Sade is the queen, the friar and me! OUT!"
Grumbling while doing so, the men left the hut. Robin shut a curtain to give them minimal privacy. When he turned to face her, she tried to ease his concern. "Thank you. I do want to help him."
His eyes were cold. "Well, you better do it then. Because if you can't save him, they are going to rush this tent."
Hours later no progress had been made with Sade. After exhausting her magic, the queen was mixing potions to try.
"He wasn't poisoned, he's been infected with blood…the blood of a Nachzehrer." she had explained. Neither Robin nor the friar knew what that was, but by her description and her look of fear at describing it, he knew it wasn't something they wanted to meet.
Sade screamed, the sound of his voice had changed with a combination of the wind howling and a baby crying. It was horrible but they tried to concentrate on their current jobs. Friar Tuck's task was to keep Sade bound while Robin helped the queen with what he could. He didn't feel very helpful, but he was compelled to stay.
Originally she attempted direct efforts with her magic to heal him. Her hands hovering over him, she tried multiple variations of spells on him but all it did was weaken her, sometimes she would collapse forcing Robin to catch her. In spite of his worry over Sade as well as the fact his son was still out there, Robin was fascinated watching her work. The amount of sheer power this small woman could unleash was mesmerizing. Even Tuck was dumbstruck as a witness. Unfortunately, it did nothing to improve Sade's condition.
So now she was trying a potion using the vials of various substances she had brought. Whatever she was making smelled awful and Tuck kept telling her so. She'd ignored him up until now. In fact, she had said very little. Robin wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. He may not remember their previous encounters but something told him she rarely held her tongue.
Of course, he planned on revisiting what she did to him. Now wasn't the time. He wanted to save Sade but he also knew Sade was his best chance at finding his son. The second Robin discovered someone had taken his son, he had rushed out to try to find him, Alan coming along. This seemed like a good idea but by that time they were long gone. Robin had hoped to find clues about where they went but in a busy village like Tylertown, it was almost impossible to pick up their tracks. When they returned back to Sade, the poison was working quickly. Sade was lucid in the beginning but because Robin had allowed panic to set in, he didn't think to question Sade over all the details that he could remember. When common sense returned, it was too late. Sade's mind was affected and communication with him was too difficult. That's when Robin took off for Regina's castle, stealing a horse and running like the wind.
"Okay, I'm ready," she said. She turned with her vial. "Friar Tuck, can you hold his mouth open, Robin, I need you to hold his body down, he's probably going to break through the ropes again."
They nodded. Robin got into position first, covering Sade's body with his. He watched Tuck take hold of Sade's jaw. It wasn't easy. The man kept trying to bite him. The queen had warned Tuck to be careful of that, she wasn't sure if he was at an infectious stage yet.
She approached holding the vial carefully. Robin noted how tired she looked, but there was something else there. Sadness? Lucille made quite an impression on Sade he already knew but did the young man make an impression on her? It seemed so unlikely.
"Got him!" Tuck shouted after managing to keep the boy's head still and open. Robin tensed as he prepared for Sade to struggle as the queen approached. Sade fought as she approached but Robin managed to hold him down. He then watched as she poured the contents of the vial down the young man's throat. Robin fixated on the sight, there was something familiar about this scene. He wasn't sure why.
A surge of strength shot through Sade, allowing him to break free of both Robin and the rope that should have held. Regina flew back, dropping the vial and whatever was left of the potion onto the floor. Robin and Tuck worked together to retie his arm back to the bed but it took quite the effort, it was amazing at how strong he was. They slowly stepped back as Sade writhed and shook, he'd still drank a good deal of the potion, perhaps it would work.
Robin turned his attention to the queen, she was trying to get up. Kneeling before her, he saw she had hit her head on the table. It was bleeding. Reaching for it, she leaned away. "No, I'm fine. Just a scratch." Their eyes met briefly and then she turned back to Sade, trying to get up. Robin helped her.
She stood watching next to Tuck as the effects of the potion worked on young Sade. Whatever was happening, it wasn't pretty to watch. He was back to screaming which made all three flinch and Robin could imagine how everyone outside reacted. After several minutes of the spectacle, the boy finally stopped completely like he passed out. The three rushed forward, was he dead? Was he better? Did it work?
Robin ran to the other side across from Regina as she brushed the hair away from the victim's face. They waited what seemed like an eternity. Robin was just about to ask if it worked when Sade's eyes flew back open and his eyes, those terrible eyes, still showed their whiteness. He opened his mouth instead of the high pitched scream they were accustomed, now he laughed. It was a low, booming sound, making Robin's blood go cold. He sounded like a demon.
Her eyes filled with tears. "It didn't work." She walked away and sat down.
Tuck said, "What next? What else have you got?"
Her head was in her hands, Robin worried the head injury may be serious but she turned back to the friar. "Nothing, I used everything with that potion."
Tuck didn't believe her. "No, you didn't, there are other potions and substances right there."
"Those wouldn't work on him," she answered deflated. She wiped her eyes, somehow Robin knew those tears were real.
Tuck stomped up to her. "How do you know? Maybe-"
She slammed her hand on the table. "Because I know!"
"What do we do now?" Robin asked. He was afraid of her answer.
She didn't look at him. She only gazed at Sade who was still laughing. "We have to-we have to kill him."
"What?" Both of them reacted.
"No!" Robin said.
Tuck turned to him. "This is what she wanted from the start."
Now on that Robin disagreed. "No, she doesn't, Tuck." He could feel her eyes on him now, but he kept eye contact with the friar, trying to keep from giving into the fatigue that was trying to overtake him. "Do you honestly think these last hours she's only been pretending? You know that's not true."
Tuck couldn't deny it but he looked like he wanted to continue to argue. Sade's laugh grew louder catching everyone's attention. Robin tried to find something in the creature before him that reminded him of Sade, but he had disappeared now. "But, your Majesty, we're not going to kill him. Sade is a friend of ours, we care about him very much."
"I know that," She said softly. "But he isn't Sade anymore. And in a few hours, maybe even less, he's going to be a Nachzehrer. Those creatures are very powerful. You don't want it to unleash its power on this camp. It will be much harder to kill then."
Robin cringed at her words, his eyes back on Sade. What was left of Sade. His body was transforming, his limbs were thinning. He couldn't believe the same sweet kid was about to turn into a monster even though it was happening before his eyes. "How do you kill them then?"
"Robin!" Tuck yelled. "You aren't listening to her."
She ignored the friar. "You can use fire to slow them down. Chopping off their head is the only way to kill it, if we let it get to that point."
The friar stood protectively next to Sade. "We are not chopping off anyone's-" Yet again, he broke free of the rope and snatched Tuck, wrapping his elongated fingers around his throat. He was choking him with one hand! Regina and Robin rushed to save Tuck but this wasn't like the pervious bursts, he was retaining the strength and managing to strangle the older man. Once it was clear mere force wouldn't stop the Nachzehrer, Regina stepped back and unleashed a fireball. The creature screamed at the first, and he released Tuck. When they wrenched him away, the friar fell, gasping for breath. As Robin held him, Regina conjured more ropes out of the ground to secure the monster. When she was done, she sat down quickly, her magic drained for the time being. "We really don't have much time!"
Robin wasn't ready to kill him, and Regina could understand why. It was almost inconceivable to imagine young Sade now becoming a dark monster. She herself had trouble accepting it and she had only spent a short amount of time with the boy.
She remembered his story about his family dying at the hands of orcs. So tragic yet he wanted to overcome that, live his life with his new family and be helpful to them. Regina couldn't get his image out of her head. Normally she would have brushed this all off and gone about with their next steps, they needed to work to find Roland. But she didn't want to just move on, for some reason she couldn't just let Sade go.
But they had no choice. He was growing stronger as every minute went by. Already he didn't resemble Sade at all. He could have been anybody, his face wasn't that of a man any longer. She'd never seen a Nachzehrer without his hood, his face in shadows. Now she knew why. "Robin, we can't linger much longer."
After nearly killing Tuck, Robin called the merry men to come in and help build a perimeter of fire around him, forcing them to dismantle the hut in the process. They made sure the fire didn't actually touch him but close enough it kept him in place should he break free of the magical ropes. Eventually he worked his hands loose and could grab at some of the wood around him, throwing it directly at certain merry men. He was making direct hits and some men were getting knocked out. If Robin didn't believe her before, he must now.
The outlaw stared at was left of Sade, obviously shocked at how everything had changed so quickly. What he really needed was time to let her advice sink in, unfortunately there was no time. If he would just believe her, they could take care of this and move on. Instead, because she ran away from him, she chose to wipe away his memories of her, he doubted her. "Is…maybe the dark one knows something that can be done?" he asked.
"It's too late for that! Even if we summoned him here he's too far gone-" She stopped to throw another fireball at the creature, he had almost reached out for Little John. Perhaps if Robin had gone directly to Rumple instead of her, but he probably wouldn't have helped him.
"Dammit," Robin said, tears in his eyes. "Give me a sword. Someone!" A merry man stood and walked towards the Nachzehrer. "I'll do it!"
Robin shook his head. "No, let me, this is…this is my responsibility. This is my fault." His voice cracked at that, Regina actually wanted to tell him that wasn't true. Perhaps he needed to say that to help him do the unthinkable. Robin took the sword and approached him. He turned back to Regina, she started to say something but she resisted. Taking his sword, he took one lingering glance at Sade and let the blade fall.
Everything went silent.
Robin had never done anything like that in his life. He had killed before, but not like that. Not someone like Sade. Not that what he just stabbed resembled Sade in anyway.
After the turmoil and chaos that was springing through camp, the silence that followed his death was deafening. The merry men didn't want Sade dead either, but in the end nobody could deny she was right. He was no longer Sade and he was going to try to kill them all. Tuck got busy working on the wounds others had sustained, either by being hit directly by the Nachzehrer during his struggles or the fire marks from his kicking wood off him towards the men.
Robin didn't have time to linger, Sade's death was tragic but he had to find Roland. Turning around, he approached Regina but he was a bit too late. Some of the men had already gotten ahead of him. They grabbed at her and were shouting. They believed she was responsible for this.
"Let me go!" she shouted angrily back at them. Robin wished the men would take five minutes and look at her. Her face was tear stained and he had no doubt she had exhausted all their options towards Sade. Could they not see that?
Getting in front of them, he told everyone to stand back. "You still can't be protecting her!" John argued.
"Sade is dead. It wasn't because of her! It's because of me!" Nobody said anything. "The person who attacked him before, they were after me. They wanted me! The queen has nothing to do with that, of this I'm sure!"
"She lied-" Alan shouted.
"I don't care!" Robin said. "Roland has been taken by people who turned Sade into a monster. My thoughts go to Roland with them and he's just a little boy, I-" He was close to crying. Regina came up beside him and he was able to compose himself again, drawing strength from her presence. He didn't understand that at all, but he knew if he had any chance of getting his son back alive, he needed the queen's help. But he could fight only so many battlefronts, if they were going after the real monsters that took Roland, then he needed his men to be supportive. "The last thing I want is for my son to be one of those creatures...whatever they do. Please, help me. Help us."
They didn't look happy, but they did want to help. A few seconds went by, then they relented. Turning back to Regina, he asked, "So what do we do now?"
"Nachzehrers, they suck souls. That can't be a coincidence, can it?"
He had no idea what she talking about. "Your Majesty?"
"Robin," she reached out and took his hand. "I think I know who might have taken your son!"
Okay, so if you got attached to Sade, I'm so sorry. Since I killed him off in my other FF, I feel like he's my Kenny. (If you get the South Park reference). Anyone interested, Nachzehrer is a real thing, well a real myth anyway (oxymoron anyone?) It's like an early version of vampires that suck your soul.
Please review. Only time-n-space-you-watch-us-run guessed the closest. Now you got more clues. Anyone want to try to guess again? If you don't, please review anyway.
Have a good weekend.